Venice, a long time ago: Three prominent Venetians await their most odious and foul dinner guest, the one-time envoy from the Queen of Britain: the rascal-Fool Pocket. In conjunction with the historical setting, the humor also allows Moore to skewer greed, hypocrisy, and racism-e.g., Middle Eastern wars for profit, segregation (in this instance, of the Jews)-all of which are still endemic in modern culture. Listed in the Literature category on Art In Fiction, The Serpent of Venice (2014) is an historical mystery by Christopher Moore, the second in his Fool series of novels. Moore’s imaginative storytelling, bawdy prose, puns aplenty, as well as his creation of a violent sea creature intent on helping Fool’s cause, and Jessica’s “piratey” disguise, succeed in transforming two classical tragedies into outrageously farcical entertainment. She leaves with Pocket, hoping to elope with a Venetian gentile with whom she is in love, as he attempts to rescue his motley companions with his friend Othello’s help, and to warn the general that a plot’s afoot. He washes up in Venice’s Jewish ghetto and is rescued by Shylock’s lovably abrasive daughter, Jessica. After a dastardly trio of Venetians (including Iago) plot to bury alive Pocket the fool for thwarting an attempt to cook up a new Crusade from which they’d hoped to profit, he is saved by what he believes is a seriously horny mermaid. Moore’s mash-up of Othello and The Merchant of Venice with Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” is a standout sequel to Fool, his twisted retelling of King Lear from 2009.
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